How has CC changed your personality?

This is a discussion on How has CC changed your personality? within the Concealed Carry Issues & Discussions forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; I am a new CC citizen and can already see ways where carrying a weapon concealed has started to change my personality (calmness, awareness, confidence, ...

While I believe the chracteristics you mention should be held by everyone all the time, a las, as we read the news, many do not.

I have carried a handgun for 36 years because of my law enforcement background...the carrying of a firearm is a huge responsibility, and I believe maturity better be there or one can find himself in all sorts of problems...one thing a senior officer conveyed to me when I first began in 1977...leave others alone unless you absolutely need to do something. It has worked well for me, and I managed to survive two gun fights.

Well for starters I am an extrovert. I am a bit like some of the characters Steve Martin (the comedian) played in movies too in that I am a wild and crazy guy. Tho not as wild nor as crazy as I was when I was younger. I had a couple of bad habits I've been working to stop just in the last couple months that I gleaned from DC here. I think sometimes others think of me as a goof ball. Even still I am profiling everyone I come across. If you're wearing a hoodie and your pants are sweeping the floor I got my eye on you. Most thugs favor hoodies. I favor my health such as it is.

I am such an excellent driver I get passed on the freeway by old people in VW's. IDC. The last time I was in a hurry my Mom was lost in Everett in her car around 7 years ago. She had early Alzheimer's back then. I jumped in my truck and was doing 70-80MPH all the way there. I made a 50 minute trip in about 20-25 minutes. I DON'T LIKE driving fast. Usually 60 is the fastest I will go even if the limit is 70. My Mom was SCARED and so I made like a code 3 firetruck. I beat my step dad there and we had the same distances to drive. I took chances I normally wouldn't. That was the last time I drove my truck like a lunatic.

My memory recently seems better and sharper. My serenity is in pretty good shape. I don't know why exactly. It's not something I can pin down. Might be just that I'm getting older. I will say this. DC has had a positive influence on me (when I listen and incorporate ideas/strategies I've seen here.) That's about it.

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I am fond of saying that "Fun & games times are over when you start carrying". I dont mean that we dont enjoy time at the range, training, other life activities, etc.

I mean that we who carry have (hopefully), found ourselves forced to very seriously confront issues that non carry people will never understand. The rest of the world can watch movies, or opine how "they would blow that sucker away!", if they (the BG) was doing this or that, as shown on TV, or in a movie.

We, on the other hand, had to examine BEFOREHAND, when we would or would not deploy our weapons. And as everyone here can understand, its complex, and ultimately frustrating.

If a "kid" mugger was demanding your wallet, would you shoot? I think that question, and only the words contained in that question, are where the rest of the non carrying world stops with their thinking. And, further, that the anti gunners would say "No", and the loud mouths would say "Yes". Neither group going beyond the exact question presented.

We who carry, if we have any sense, understand that it goes beyond the question posed in my example. We have to consider that its not simply our money that the BG is after. What are the odds that you would be killed, or for some, raped, after complying? And so on.

Our world suddenly became a more serious place, once we started carrying.

I try to maintain my surroundings more. I am careful how I do things lest I accidentally show, though in Florida I am safe as long as I re-cover. I pay attention to my surroundings more and try to hold myself in check more often then I do when I didn't carry. I am much more reserved now. But past that not much has changed. Living with firearms for most of my life and then relying on them to keep me alive makes having one on you as a CCW nothing more than the norm.

For me, the 'change' occurred before I decided to carry. I thought long and hard about how I needed to interact with the world while carrying. And, I spent a lot of time thinking through what I am willing and not willing to do - mindset if you will.

Other than possibly managing my temper a little better (and that is something I will work on until I pass from this world I suspect) and some more SA, I really have not changed all that much. I know myself a little better, but I don't know if it has really changed my behaviors all that much.